A conservation charity who work in the national park have called for bolder action to tackle litter.

Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs say litter alongside the busy A82 on Loch Lomondside and at other visitor hotspots is a blight on one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

At their annual general meeting the issue was a hot topic following what they said was one of the worst years on record for litter at beauty spots in the park.

There was concern that current arrangements for litter collection are poorly coordinated between the various agencies and “fell well short” of what is needed.

Pleas were made for the various bodies with responsibility for litter management in the park to step up their efforts to combat the problem.

The Friends suggested a five-point action plan to be adopted by councils and bodies such as the National Park Authority and Forestry Commission Scotland:

● More frequent litter clearance at busy weekends and during holiday periods.

● More and larger bins provided at busy locations.

● Litter bins in every layby, emptied regularly.

● More rigorous enforcement of litter fines.

● Harder-hitting litter education campaigns on topics such as single-use plastic, recycling and the impacts of irresponsible litter disposal.

Friends chairman James Fraser said: “Recent research by Keep Scotland Beautiful has confirmed Scotland is one of the dirtiest countries in Western Europe despite being voted as the most beautiful country in the world by Rough Guide readers.

“This contradiction is sadly well illustrated in Scotland’s first national park, where accumulations of litter reached an all-time high in the past year at popular beauty spots and in lay-bys along the A82.

“Working with others, we have increased the number of voluntary cleans-ups and the national park authority has improved litter clearance efforts at a number of lochside beauty spots but this has been insufficient to stem the tide.

“The time has come for much bolder action to be taken and to stop passing the buck between various agencies if we are serious about making a real difference.

“We all have a responsibility to ensure the national park is a cleaner and safer place for people to enjoy and for wildlife to thrive.”

Park authority chief executive Gordon Watson agreed that the levels of litter being left in some parts were “disgraceful”, adding that this was why extra measures had been introduced this summer.

He said: “We are doubling the number of collections of larger bins at our busiest locations, recruiting two new environment officers to focus on litter prevention and enforcement at weekends and carrying out extra litter picks by our rangers on camping permit areas.

“This is on top of the existing work carried out by our land operations team and contractors to manage litter throughout the week and the enforcement action we take on littering and fly tipping where we have been issuing fines.

“But the answer isn’t just to put in more bins and increase collections.

“The high volume of visitors to the national park does unfortunately lead to increased levels of waste at peak times and it’s vital that people take responsibility for what they do with their own waste.

“We’ll be using a range of communications channels to reinforce this and will work with our partners to strengthen our partnership approach.”